Children are adorable and sweet until they aren't... Thrillers that revolve around creepy kids and kids in terrifying situations. Perfect for the 'just one more page' reader.
Unspeakable Things
By Lourey, Jess
Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author's hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet - or as safe - as it seems.Cassie McDowell's life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents' strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she's grown accustomed to them.All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed - violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who's responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781542008785
|
Paperback
The Chain
By Mckinty, Adrian
You just dropped off your child at the bus stop.A panicked stranger calls your phone.Your child has been kidnapped.The stranger then explains that their child has also been kidnapped, by a completely different stranger.The only way to get your child back is to kidnap another child - within 24 hours.Your child will be released only when the next victim's parents kidnap yet another child.And most importantly, the stranger explains, if you don't kidnap a child, or if the next parents don't kidnap a child, your child will be murdered. You are now part of The Chain.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780316531269
|
Hardcover
Three Days Missing
By Belle, Kimberly
Those closest to us are often the most dangerous ... It's every parent's worst nightmare: the call that comes in the middle of the night.When Kat Jenkins awakens to the police on her doorstep, her greatest fear is realized. Her nine-year-old son, Ethan, is missing - vanished from the cabin where he'd been on an overnight field trip with his class. Shocked and distraught, Kat rushes to the campground where he was last seen. But she's too late; the authorities have returned from their search empty-handed after losing Ethan's trail in the mountain forest.Another mother from the school, Stef Huntington, seems like she has it all: money, prominence in the community, a popular son and a loving husband. She hardly knows Kat, except for the vicious gossip that swirls around Kat's traumatic past. But as the police investigation unfolds, Ethan's disappearance will have earth-shattering consequences in Stef's own life - and the paths of these two mothers are about to cross in ways no one could have anticipated.Racing against the clock, their desperate search for answers begins - one where the greatest danger could lie behind the everyday smiles of those they trust the most.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780778307716
|
Paperback
Sharp Objects
By Flynn, Gillian
WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preakers troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camilles first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her legSince she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her familys Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankleAs Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780307341549
|
Book
The Boy in the Suitcase
By Kaaberbol, Lene
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who canrsquot say no when someone asks for helpmdasheven when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy naked and drugged, but alive.Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boyrsquos are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781569479810
|
Hardcover
Baby Teeth
By Stage, Zoje
A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bonds in award-winning playwright and filmmaker Zoje Stage's tense novel of psychological suspense, Baby Teeth.
Afflicted with a chronic debilitating condition, Suzette Jensen knew having children would wreak havoc on her already fragile body. Nevertheless, she brought Hanna into the world, pleased and proud to start a family with her husband Alex. Estranged from her own mother, Suzette is determined to raise her beautiful daughter with the love, care, and support she was denied.
But Hanna proves to be a difficult child. Now seven-years-old, she has yet to utter a word, despite being able to read and write. Defiant and anti-social, she refuses to behave in kindergarten classes, forcing Suzette to homeschool her. Resentful of her mother's rules and attentions, Hanna lashes out in anger, becoming more aggressive every day. The only time Hanna is truly happy is when she's with her father. To Alex, she's willful and precocious but otherwise the perfect little girl, doing what she's told.
Suzette knows her clever and manipulative daughter doesn't love her. She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna's subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and Alex apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger ...
"Unnerving and unputdownable, Baby Teeth will get under your skin and keep you trapped in its chilling grip until the shocking conclusion." -- New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline
"We Need to Talk About Kevin meets Gone Girl meets The Omen...a twisty, delirious read that will constantly question your sympathies for the two characters as their bond continues to crumble." -- Entertainment Weekly
"A pulse-spiking thriller." -- PopSugar
Publisher: n/a
|
9781250170750
|
Book
The Lying Game
By Ware, Ruth
On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...
The next morning, three women in and around London - Fatima, Thea, and Isabel - receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, "I need you."
The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other - ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school's eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate's father) .
Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill that will keep you wrong-footed - which has now become Ruth Ware's signature style - The Lying Game is sure to be her next big bestseller. Another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781501156007
|
Book
Little Darlings
By Golding, Melanie
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they're right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she's never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own ... creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she's imagining things.
A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren's side in a park. But when they're found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley -- to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.
Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she's wrong about what she saw ... she'll be making the biggest mistake of her life.
Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking -- and rechecking -- your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781683319979
|
Book
The Last Time I Lied
By Sager, Riley
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.
Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.
Yet it's immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781524743079
|
Book
The Wrong Family
By Fisher, Tarryn
Have you ever been wrong about someone?Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch.Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son - the perfect life. Only now that she's living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.Still, she isn't one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel ... She shouldn't get involved.She really shouldn't.But this could be her chance to make a few things right.Because if you thought Juno didn't have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781525806377
|
Hardcover
The Whisper Man
By North, Alex
Told in alternating voices, Alex North's thriller The Whisper Man delivers strong twists and a truly surprising ending. A fresh start always seems like a good idea, but for Tom Kennedy and his son Jake, it doesn't go so well. When the two move back to Tom's hometown, their arrival coincides with the kidnapping of a boy who is Jake's age. The crime appears to have the hallmark of Frank Carter, a serial killer who terrorized the town twenty years earlier, and part of the novel is narrated by the cop who captured Carter decades earlier. The Whisper Man is spine-tinglingly creepy, and the suspense keeps building, layer by layer. Little reveals only serve to keep the reader guessing, and the end feels like more than a reveal--for me it was as if the entire atmosphere of the story took an unexpected and chilly turn. At first, the storyline appears to employ a familiar genre trope, but it veers wonderfully from the expected, and North's inclusion of a touching father-son relationship in this psychological thriller took it to the top of our best of the month list.--Seira Wilson,
Publisher: n/a
|
1250317991
|
Book
Gretchen
By Kirk, Shannon
The new tenants have a terrible secret. So do the landlord and his daughter ... Ever since Lucy was two, she's been on the run alongside her mother. She's never understood the reason for a lifetime of paranoia, aliases, and lies. All she understands are the rules: never lock eyes with strangers, never let down your guard, and always be ready to move on.Finally, after thirteen years and eleven states, their next hideaway seems perfect. An isolated, fortresslike place in the New Hampshire woods is the new home they share with its owner, a gentlemanly pianist, and his lonely daughter, Gretchen. She's Lucy's age and soon becomes Lucy's first real friend.But Gretchen and her father have secrets of their own - and an obsession with puzzles that draws Lucy into a terrifying new game of hide-and-seek.
Unspeakable Things
By Lourey, Jess
Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author's hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet - or as safe - as it seems.Cassie McDowell's life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents' strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she's grown accustomed to them.All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed - violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who's responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface.
The Chain
By Mckinty, Adrian
You just dropped off your child at the bus stop.A panicked stranger calls your phone.Your child has been kidnapped.The stranger then explains that their child has also been kidnapped, by a completely different stranger.The only way to get your child back is to kidnap another child - within 24 hours.Your child will be released only when the next victim's parents kidnap yet another child.And most importantly, the stranger explains, if you don't kidnap a child, or if the next parents don't kidnap a child, your child will be murdered. You are now part of The Chain.
Three Days Missing
By Belle, Kimberly
Those closest to us are often the most dangerous ... It's every parent's worst nightmare: the call that comes in the middle of the night.When Kat Jenkins awakens to the police on her doorstep, her greatest fear is realized. Her nine-year-old son, Ethan, is missing - vanished from the cabin where he'd been on an overnight field trip with his class. Shocked and distraught, Kat rushes to the campground where he was last seen. But she's too late; the authorities have returned from their search empty-handed after losing Ethan's trail in the mountain forest.Another mother from the school, Stef Huntington, seems like she has it all: money, prominence in the community, a popular son and a loving husband. She hardly knows Kat, except for the vicious gossip that swirls around Kat's traumatic past. But as the police investigation unfolds, Ethan's disappearance will have earth-shattering consequences in Stef's own life - and the paths of these two mothers are about to cross in ways no one could have anticipated.Racing against the clock, their desperate search for answers begins - one where the greatest danger could lie behind the everyday smiles of those they trust the most.
Sharp Objects
By Flynn, Gillian
WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preakers troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camilles first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her legSince she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her familys Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankleAs Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly.
The Boy in the Suitcase
By Kaaberbol, Lene
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who canrsquot say no when someone asks for helpmdasheven when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy naked and drugged, but alive.Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boyrsquos are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.
Baby Teeth
By Stage, Zoje
A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bonds in award-winning playwright and filmmaker Zoje Stage's tense novel of psychological suspense, Baby Teeth. Afflicted with a chronic debilitating condition, Suzette Jensen knew having children would wreak havoc on her already fragile body. Nevertheless, she brought Hanna into the world, pleased and proud to start a family with her husband Alex. Estranged from her own mother, Suzette is determined to raise her beautiful daughter with the love, care, and support she was denied. But Hanna proves to be a difficult child. Now seven-years-old, she has yet to utter a word, despite being able to read and write. Defiant and anti-social, she refuses to behave in kindergarten classes, forcing Suzette to homeschool her. Resentful of her mother's rules and attentions, Hanna lashes out in anger, becoming more aggressive every day. The only time Hanna is truly happy is when she's with her father. To Alex, she's willful and precocious but otherwise the perfect little girl, doing what she's told. Suzette knows her clever and manipulative daughter doesn't love her. She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna's subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and Alex apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger ... "Unnerving and unputdownable, Baby Teeth will get under your skin and keep you trapped in its chilling grip until the shocking conclusion." -- New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline
"We Need to Talk About Kevin meets Gone Girl meets The Omen...a twisty, delirious read that will constantly question your sympathies for the two characters as their bond continues to crumble." -- Entertainment Weekly
"A pulse-spiking thriller." -- PopSugar
The Lying Game
By Ware, Ruth
On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...
The next morning, three women in and around London - Fatima, Thea, and Isabel - receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, "I need you."
The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other - ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school's eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate's father) .
Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill that will keep you wrong-footed - which has now become Ruth Ware's signature style - The Lying Game is sure to be her next big bestseller. Another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
Little Darlings
By Golding, Melanie
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they're right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she's never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own ... creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she's imagining things.
A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren's side in a park. But when they're found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley -- to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.
Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she's wrong about what she saw ... she'll be making the biggest mistake of her life.
Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking -- and rechecking -- your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.
The Last Time I Lied
By Sager, Riley
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.
Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.
Yet it's immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.
The Wrong Family
By Fisher, Tarryn
Have you ever been wrong about someone?Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch.Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son - the perfect life. Only now that she's living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.Still, she isn't one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel ... She shouldn't get involved.She really shouldn't.But this could be her chance to make a few things right.Because if you thought Juno didn't have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too.
The Whisper Man
By North, Alex
Told in alternating voices, Alex North's thriller The Whisper Man delivers strong twists and a truly surprising ending. A fresh start always seems like a good idea, but for Tom Kennedy and his son Jake, it doesn't go so well. When the two move back to Tom's hometown, their arrival coincides with the kidnapping of a boy who is Jake's age. The crime appears to have the hallmark of Frank Carter, a serial killer who terrorized the town twenty years earlier, and part of the novel is narrated by the cop who captured Carter decades earlier. The Whisper Man is spine-tinglingly creepy, and the suspense keeps building, layer by layer. Little reveals only serve to keep the reader guessing, and the end feels like more than a reveal--for me it was as if the entire atmosphere of the story took an unexpected and chilly turn. At first, the storyline appears to employ a familiar genre trope, but it veers wonderfully from the expected, and North's inclusion of a touching father-son relationship in this psychological thriller took it to the top of our best of the month list.--Seira Wilson,
Gretchen
By Kirk, Shannon
The new tenants have a terrible secret. So do the landlord and his daughter ... Ever since Lucy was two, she's been on the run alongside her mother. She's never understood the reason for a lifetime of paranoia, aliases, and lies. All she understands are the rules: never lock eyes with strangers, never let down your guard, and always be ready to move on.Finally, after thirteen years and eleven states, their next hideaway seems perfect. An isolated, fortresslike place in the New Hampshire woods is the new home they share with its owner, a gentlemanly pianist, and his lonely daughter, Gretchen. She's Lucy's age and soon becomes Lucy's first real friend.But Gretchen and her father have secrets of their own - and an obsession with puzzles that draws Lucy into a terrifying new game of hide-and-seek.